Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Old Rte. 66 passes through Normal and Bloomington on its way to California. So, this morning, Yuma and I decided to follow it south about 30 miles to Atlanta, Illinois.

After leaving Bloomington, it follows the I-55 interstate and passes through the villages of Shirley, Funks Grove and Mclean before reaching the town of Atlanta.

The road is well maintained and used extensively by those living in this area.

I took a short trip across the bridge into Shirley and stopped at Sam’s Auto Body shop. I met Sam many year’s ago and knew he had a shop there. With a population of under 400 and only about four buildings in the whole area, it wasn’t hard to find. Had a nice visit and was on my way.

During my short drive from Shirley to Funks Grove, two police cars passed me. When I arrived to the accident, it was on a road just off Rte. 66 leading into Funks Grove. It was crowded with ambulances and and a fire truck. There was a farm implement half way across the road and to the right of the road on the railroad tracks was a large track laying machine.

No idea what happened and did not want to bother anyone, so I just kept going.

Yuma spotted this old fire truck in a farmers front yard.

Atlanta is not very big. Population 1692 in 2010 census. Has a beautiful octagon shaped city library and museum. There is a beautiful tower clock next to it.

They have a Paul Bunyon giant holding a hotdog. Don’t see those often.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Late this morning, Yuma and I decided to take a jeep run on the country roads north of here. The village of Carlock is about 10 miles north and as I skirted the houses to the east on a one lane blacktop, I came across the White Oak Carlock Cemetery.

We parked the jeep and took a walk through it. Way to the back is the old cemetery,

There were many stones of residents of the Carlock area that died in the 1800s. Found many with the name Crump. This was and is a large family in this area. Also found the Carlock family here too.